Residential and industrial waste is generally deposited in a landfill. A landfill is created by excavating a depression in the ground for the deposit of waste. A well known drawback of landfills is that rain water will absorb chemical residue from the deposited waste and carry the chemicals to the bottom of the landfill. The mix of chemicals and water is known as a leachate, a solution of chemicals leached from the waste. The leachate is often harmful, and sometimes toxic, to plants and animals. Without intervention, the leachate would permeate the ground below the landfill and enter the water supply. To prevent the rain water from carrying the chemical residue into underground streams or aquifers, a durable, liquid impervious liner is placed into the excavated depression to trap the water. However, the trapped leachate must be removed from the excavated depression or it will continue to accumulate, ultimately to overflow the depression and enter the adjacent ground and water supply.
A network of pipes, some of which are perforated, is built for collecting the leachate from the lined landfill depression and pumping the leachate to a purification facility to remove or neutralize the chemicals. After purification, the treated water may be reintroduced into the usable water system. Typically, the pipe network is formed of a chemically inert resin, e.g. high density polyethylene (HDPE). To form the pipe network, sections of HDPE pipe are thermally welded to one another, often resulting in a protruding weld joint. The pipe network is assembled on the landfill liner before waste is deposited. A bed of pervious gravel is spread on the pipe network to stabilize and protect the pipes. A submersible pump, placed within a centrally positioned collecting pipe, is employed to remove the leachate from the landfill. To enable the pump to be moved along a longitudinal path into and out of the central collecting pipe, a pump transporter device is used. The overall landfill system including a pump and a known pump transporter are described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,080 of the present inventor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,080 is incorporated herein in its entirety. The present invention provides improvements over the known transporter as described in detail below.